The Sunday return of "Satchels & Shoes"!

I love muck boots but they're really expensive because they're made for mucking around the elements and they're warm as well as waterproof. I had a pink pair when I lived in the Wild West. When I left there, I gifted the boots on, not thinking I would need them here.

Well, I was an idiot!

But I think I found something a bit more my style. To heck with muck boots. I found rainboots! Aren't these the cutest things you've ever seen?!? I *adore* these boots. If I could think of a reason to have more than one pair, you know I would! I was shocked that Target had such a cute item.

And I love to pair it with my purple messenger bag!

In Shoes We Trust,
Mags

Time after time meme

1. Are you a Rolex watch, a Mickey Mouse watch, or a pocket watch?
Oh I'm a Rolex my darlings; nothing but a timeless class. Oh okay, I’m probably more the Mickey Mouse watch, fun and silly and well, a bit timeless still!

2. Can you think of a time when you couldn’t see the forest for the trees?
Yes, right now actuall. Will I ever get a job? No.....

3. Can you think of a time when you were on the outside looking in? What did you see?
I feel like that most of my life; I've never really fit in so I feel like I just don't fit in most places. I saw a person who was a bit shy and nervous at times.

4. Go back in time. Maybe a long time ago, maybe today. Pick an hour you’d like to freeze frame forever and tell us why. It doesn’t have to be THE most important hour of your life, but make it a good one.
The first kiss I shared with AlaskaSam; it would've been the point to make some many better choices, after that perfect kiss.

5. If you were a cuckoo clock, what would others say about you?
The same thing everyone says now: that I'm crazy.

6. Can you think of a time when time stood still?
You know, I know there are moments in time when I thought time stood still at that time it was happening but I can't remember any of those things at this point.

7. Watch this: You are a stopwatch. What would you stop?
Racial intolerance, abuse of any sort, world hunger

8. Imagine you were just born and have infinite wisdom. After the doctor smacks your newborn dust ruffle, you look around and say to the Universe: “Give me a whole lifetime to do this, and I will bless the day I was born.” What do you choose?
I don't know. At all.

Trip to the orchard- a very fall thing to do

I love to go to the apple orchard. Each autumn the one closest to me has an open house every weekend in Sept. and October. They always have different types of musical entertainment as well as cider making demonstrations, wagon rides, a variety of apples to sample, a corn maze, tours, and "u pick it" pumpkin patch.

When I lived in the Wild West I always missed my fall trips to the orchard. We never seemed to have anything like that at all- probably because where I lived skipped the season of fall entirely and went straight from summer to snow blizzards. Anyway...

Now that I've moved back to Civilization, I was pretty excited to go again. And it was a nice time. And just as I remembered it.

One thing I especially like is that every type of apple is available to taste. A visitor can get a knife and cut a slice off a "sample" apple. Each variety is labeled as to the flavor and use for that particular type of apple, as you can see from the picture on the left. You can read the card and if it sounds like it's worth a taste, you can cut a slice off of the apple in the plastic container. We bought a good cooking apple, that's also sweet enough to be a good eating apple called a Spartan. I'm going to make dumplings to freeze and put up some applesauce out of those.

The day I was there an amateur brass band was playing, which was nice. A guy was making cider the old fashioned way and letting people have a taste. Oh, one thing had been updated: the wagon rides. They used to be on a big old hay wagon pulled by a horse. Now, it's a low, flatbed trailer lined with bench seats and pulled by a John Deere tractor. There's also no corn maze this year; the field is a bean field this time.

I also like that there is more for sale than just bags of apples or pumpkins. There are also homemade cider, caramel apples, and apple butter- all made at the orchard from their fruits. Baked goods like pumpkin or apple pies, dumplings, and cobblers can be found as well a fresh honey made from the bees at their orchard as well.

Something else the orchard is offering this year is a little arts and crafts area. Local vendors can set up tents to sell their wares, but it's cannot be flea market junk, but craft type of things. Also a local high school has a little tent set up at the edge of the parking area where they make and sell apple fritters for a quarter. They make them in a kettle over a fire pit- very awesome.

It was a fun day and I hope to go back again in two weeks when the leaves have a chance to turn colors a little more. I'm also going to go for a wagon ride this time and maybe brave the pumpkin patch (I didn't last time because I was wearing flip-flops. Flip-flops are not pumpkin patch appropriate footwear- take my word for it.)

It's nice to have an autumn and find fall activities that I've missed! This is just one of many! This weekend I get to attend a REENACTMENT as a guest, not a participant this time! (Can we say "history nerd"?) I'm also going to a chili cook off festival and an arts/ crafts hobby show, all over the next few weeks. And I've been taking pictures so if you're interested in seeing some of the autumn whereabouts, check out my photo blog!

Enjoying the season change,
Maggie

Ben Cartwright

Two years ago my mom died. But this post isn't really about that, but it's part of it. She was sick in the hospital about a week before she died. She was in the ICU during that time.

The waiting room in ICU is... strange, for lack of a better word. Everyone is there because they're all facing a tragedy with a loved one. There was an Amish family whose son wasn't going to make it. There were a few folks who were in and out because their relation was having open heart surgery. There was us. Then there was another family.

Now remember, when my mom got sick, I was living in the Wild West. We just threw our stuff in suitcases and hopped the first flight possible. I never dreamed when I left that she would die. So I wasn't dressed up ever. I usually wore Wranglers, western shirts or long sleeve t-shirts, and a pair of pink cowboy boots. Yeah, you read that right, pink cowboy boots. I love them and I still wear them here. They're "dress" boots; think of them as Sunday Go To Meetin' boots, not for working in the fields or riding.

As I sat in the hospital waiting room, a man came in to join his family. He hugged everyone, spoke in low tones and then took his seat to take up his stretch of the vigil. He was wearing a pair of Wranglers, work cowboy boots, a clean flannel shirt, and a cowboy hat, which he turned upside down on the seat next to him, like a good cowboy does. He had a weathered face and white hair. He's probably about 60 years old. I'm gonna call him Ben Cartwright.

We made eye contact and nodded heads. Then he noticed my boots, and smiled. Then he grinned. And his smile got bigger and he finally walked across the waiting room and introduced himself and said, "I had to meet a girl who'd wear pink boots."

We chatted; his brother was having brain surgery. He was there with sister, and his brother wife and kids. I told him about my mom. Then we chatted about the Wild West. I told him about why I moved there, what I did and about where I lived. And irony of all ironies; he's a horseman who came to the Wild West annually to buy horses. And he came to the town that was only 61 miles from me, the closest town to me. He had even been to the tiny little place where I lived.

Add more irony, we were at a hospital in Northern Civilization, about 45 minutes from where I live. Come to find out Ben lives about 20 minutes from me in the other direction but his brother (who was having the brain tumor surgery) lived in the same town I do and his nephew (brain tumor guy's son) lived about 10 minutes from me as well.

Ben was funny and interesting. And because he had been where I lived, we really connected and could talk and talk. He was just a sweet and kind man.

Over the course of the week he and I would talk every day and got to know each other. His wife and I chatted sometimes but she was busy comforting Ben's sister-in-law. After mom died, I wasn't gonna be back to the ICU waiting room so Ben and I exchanged addresses and phone numbers; he was going to call me when he came to the Wild West again. His brother came out of the surgery and was doing really well. If all went as planned, he would be moved out of ICU and into a regular room 2 days after my mom died. I was happy that they had good news, ya know?

That year at Christmas, I sent them a card but never heard from them. I don't know why. I did keep his address and phone number. So, I guess we just 'lost touch' but for whatever reason he stayed on my mind often.

So last week, the nephew comes in the ice cream parlor. I was surprised because he hadn't been in at any time that I had been working all summer long. We recognized each other and he said he was going to tell his Uncle- Ben Cartwright- that he saw me.

Then a few days ago, who walks in while I was working? BEN CARTWRIGHT! It was awesome! After big hugs and kisses we got caught up. And I pulled his address out of my wallet and it seemed that I had written his snail mail addy wrong. But guess what he pulled out of his wallet? MY ADDRESS! It was just too funny.

We made sure we had the new info and that it was all correct. AND he called and sang "happy birthday" to me! It's so great that we've reconnected. And since he's a horseman, I have now a standing invite to ride (horses) anytime I want. It's amazing. How wonderful!

Something good can come out of something bad and here's the perfect example of such!

Still a little bit country whether I like it or not,
Maggie Mae

More (and hopefully the last of the) ice cream tales

Number 1:

"Tom" comes in 3-4 times a week, usually with his wife to get a flavored soda. They are obviously regulars. They've always been super nice to me. They're the chatty type and we've gotten to know each other. Tom came in one day last week alone and stood and talked to me for about 15 minutes (it was actually slow at the point since it was thunder storming outside). he told me how great my hair looked and I said thanks. Then he asked me what I was doing that night and I said I was working. He said it was too bad because he wanted to take me to dinner at his favorite place on the lake. I think I said something about "wouldn't his wife mind?" and I 'haha-ed' and he said "she doesn't have to know. If you go with me, she won't be."

A married guy. Who's old enough to be my dad. EEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!

Number 2:

Mother and her three screaming brats come in and order dinner and decide to eat in. The kids run all over the place and scream and yell. I fix their food and take it to the table. Kids continue to scream and yell and mother continues to do nothing. When the woman standing at the counter who was trying to order and I asked her to repeat herself for the third time and I still COULDN'T hear her, I decided I had enough. I marched over to the table and got down on the kids' eye level and said in a very loud and nice voice, "LOOK! You need to be quiet right now. I can't hear. You need to use your inside voice or your mommy will need to take you home. Got it?" The looked at me and nodded. I looked and mommy and she refused to make eye contact with me and never said a word. They left about 5 minutes later.

Number 3:

Our ice cream store is located between a liquor store and a local restaurant. We get some interesting people who walk, drive, bike, and skateboard passed the parlor.

Yesterday is was cool- the first really cool day we had, in the middle 50s, there was a HUGE wind blowing and it was raining- basically the cold, wet nightmare of a day. And a woman walks passed. She is an older lady, probably in her late 50s, early 60s. She had a cane and a limp. And she walked passed my store and about 15 minutes later she goes back the way she came, struggling along with her cane, her limp, in the rain, against the wind and carrying a bottle in a brown paper bag.

Number 4:

Every day, around the same time of day, a guy rides his bike passed. He looked like the version of Forest Gump who ran across the country a few times. He rides a bicycle and goes by with carry out food in a Styrofoam container in the basket of his bike. He wears leathers. There's so much about this that makes me smile: that a guy who looks like him rides a bicycle with a basket or the carry out or that he looks like "Running Forest Gump." Hey, I'm just observing.

Number 5:

The ice cream is owned by 2 sisters, their mom and their uncle. The uncle is sort of the "silent" partner in that he does all the finances for the company. And because he's such an early bird, he stops in the shop each morning and puts cash in the register. Since I've been opening, the Uncle comes in each day before I get there and leaves some money in the register and he also turns the alarm off, but keeps it locked. That way I don't need to have the alarm code.

So one day I open the doors, walk half way across the dining room and hear a beeping- the alarm! Shit, it wasn't turned off! I drop my stuff, dash across the room, back out the door, and I throw the lock hoping I can keep the alarm from beeping. Unfortunately, it doesn't. The blares; a cacophony of sirens that sounds like 17 police car sirens all at once.

I have no code so I need to call someone before I had the entire police department at my feet. I start to grab my phone and... I dropped my purse inside. I unlock the door, get my purse and then I get the cordless store phone because the "Very Well Known and Reputable Nationwide Alarm Company" will be calling. I stand outside and call one of the owners. She gives me the code, I shut it off and go inside. And start through the opening procedure. And guess what? The alarm company has never called. The police never called. I could've been robbed or killed or something and no one would've known. Yeah.

And to top it off, the Uncle forgot to leave me cash in the register. Feh.

Celebrate Freedom- Read a Banned Book

Wanna know more? Check this out!

Here are just a few titles that have been banned in the US at some point:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

Why I quit ice cream

• I can make the same money in 3 days of subbing as I can working a whole week of scooping ice cream
• I'm gaining weight (not much, but enough)
• I have arthritis in my right hand and it's so bad right now I can't open my fingers wide nor make a fist, because of the pain and swollen knuckles
• My back hurts, my feet and ankles hurt, my right elbow always hurts and so does my right shoulder. this job gives me occasional cankles. I'm such a big baby!
• I will probably not fall asleep as soon as I get home from work each night, at around 6:30pm so I'll feel like crafting, watching new tv and reading and hanging with Mac.
  
• I miss teaching and subbing is better than nothing
• I will be able to actually attend a spinning class as I've wanted to do all summer long, and if that doesn't kill me, I'll be able to attend a zumba class. Hey, I do these things for blog fodder and for no other reason, my prettys!
  
• If I have a day where I don't get called, can go to my college Alma Mater town and see all the new adorable shops that have been opened, including a hands on artist studio! They also now have a grand coffee house, an organic bakery, 2 used books shops, a quilt shop, and a bunch of other little neat shops. I've been passed but haven't been able to go because they are always closed when I get off work and there's not time to go in the morning.
  
• I live anywhere from 3 minutes to 30 minutes from 9 high schools and 9 junior high/ middle schools= total of 18 schools. And I signed up to sub as EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!
• Subbing looks better on my professional resume than scoop girl
• I hate standing on a hard concrete floor for 6.5-9 hours a day and since I'm the only one there, I have no breaks or relief. (Not that I ever did when the owner was there...)
  
• I hate coming home hot, sweaty and sticky and ruining clothes because chocolate DOES stain
• I miss wearing my dress up clothes
• I can read lots more books in a month when subbing than I can when ice cream coning
  
• My ice cream hours are going to be cut from 30 a week to 5 a week in January through March because, even though we're open all year around, that is "off season" for ice cream. And if I wait get on a sub list then, no one will call me because I'll be at the bottom of the 'seniority' pile.
• Working at the ice cream parlor was leaving me zero flexibility to interview
• There is going to be an English teacher going on maternity leave in January and she requested ME to finish her school year. I WANT to do this and the principal has casually mentioned it to me already so I need to be visible to him, and gain some sub points to be eligible.

So there ya go. That's all she wrote. My last day as a scoop girl is on Friday, Oct. 2.

Closing the ice creamy cone chapter,
Mags